Seventh (and final) day

At the end of the week this is all that is left. The oil was a 48oz bottle and we used about 10 oz and the sugar was a two lb bag and we used about 12 oz. Not buying these in the next week would give us $2.71 to spend.


Saturday, day 7, was definitely bottom of the barrel. If we hadn't eaten out last night, we might have had to boil old shoes. We went out early this morning and bought a quart of milk with our last money. It cost $1.20 but we couldn't find anything to buy for 20 cents. We combined breakfast and lunch into a 5 egg fritatta with fried onions and peppers with cheese on top and a bit of toast. I also sliced very thin and fried up the last of the smoked sausage. Paul tried his hand at noodles and was much more successful than I. I roasted our last 2 teeny chicken thighs with the last 2 carrots and 2 onions and made them into soup. I had saved a bit of the juice from the chicken paprikash, so I was able to give a bit of color and flavor to the soup, which tasted just how you would expect. There was a bit of the beans & greens left, which Paul ate out of a sense of duty. We finished off the bread and cheese, but there was not much of either. We did have 7 peanut butter cookies for dessert. We are going ballroom dancing tonight and there is a cash bar. We will have to drink out of the water fountain. Tomorrow I am planning Eggs Benedict with asparagus and for dinner, a great big spinach salad with hot bacon dressing, croutons and hard boiled eggs. And a steak. I think I will make a rhubarb crumble for afters.

What I learned: This is a difficult way to live, especially if you like food. I would have liked to vary the starches a bit more, and fresh fruit and vegetables were out of the question. I am really tired of bread.
Marilyn

This was a good experience. It certainly helped me understand why why people who are on food stamps usually experience poor nutrition. Marilyn and I are very good cooks and bakers. We take time to cook (especially Marilyn). We are very savvy shoppers and we know a lot about nutrition. But even we found this tough. We could have done better but it would have meant going over to subsistance eating ... beans, rice and maybe cornbread or tortillas .. breakfast, lunch and dinner.

There is a trade-off if you are a good cook and if you want to eat cheaply. Being a good cook helps to make basic ingredients into good meals. However, being a good cook usually means that one is interested in food. It would be a bit easier if one knew the basics of cooking but didn't care about the quality of what one ate. That's a tough line to walk.

The other thing I learned is that it is easier to eat proper amounts when you have to do so. It is too easy for most of us to make more than we need and eat extra helpings. Marilyn pointed out this moring that when you eat a lot for dinner (she ate a bit more at the dinner last night than she usually eats) you wake up hungrier than you do when you eat a modest amount. So ... sticking to a weekly set of menus can help to keep you thin.

Marilyn will find out that we will visit the cash bar at dancing tonight :-)

Paul

Sixth day

Paul used the last of our flour to make one more loaf of bread. I feel like Ma Ingalls in The Long Winter. Paul had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast, and I had the dried up tail end of a little loaf of bread. Fortuitously, Paul realized we could make cinnamon toast, which has somewhat eased my pain. I am running out of milk, so I scoped out what $1.40 will buy to get us through tomorrow night. Not much. Paul had last night's dinner for lunch, and I had a little bit of melted cheese on the crust of that little loaf. I was pretty sanguine about this, as we had previously paid for 2 tickets to an end-of-term banquet, so dinner was eating out.
Marilyn

Well, dinner out was a slight curve in the straight and narrow experiment but we adjusted. We didn't pig out at the dinner and since it was served buffet we could have. I wonder how the Governor and his wife dealt with that since I can't belive that they don't have to make a decision about a dine-out event possibility every night. We did have some wine ... even cheap wine tastes good when you've been abstaining.

We have enough calories to get through tomorrow and we would have even if we had eaten dinner at home tonight. If we can find some milk for $1.40 for Marilyn so she can have tea, we will get through swimmingly.

I checked, by the way, on the bulk price of flour. Good quality flour is $3.50 for 25lb ($.70 per 5 lb vs the $1.09 we paid for the worst quality flour. It is even cheaper if you get bigger bags. Rice is the same. You can get great prices on premium rice if you buy 25lb bags. The question is can you get it easily if you are not flush with transportation funds? I am beginning to think that this is one of the keys to success or failure. My elder son thinks that if he lived within walking distance of a Grand Mart he could live well on $3 per day with no problem ... and he's right. But how many food stamp folks live next to such places?

I measured out the last of my coffee tonight and it will make it through tomorrow with no trouble. So, 12oz lasts me a week at full strength making a [measured] 6 cup carafe at home or work each day and a mug first thing in the morning. If I look in strange places like markets or stores that sell remainders or job lots, I can pick up very good coffee for $5 for 12 oz. I'd like to see if I can go cheaper without sacrificing quality. Any thoughts?

Paul

Fifth day

This was an easy day for some reason, probably because the end is in sight and our food supply is holding up pretty well. I had tea and buttered toast for breakfast, and Paul had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For lunch I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on toast, because our bread is getting rather stale. Paul had Tuesday night's dinner, rice pilaf and fish for lunch. For dinner we had chicken paprikash (sans sour cream) and cabbage and noodles, called haluski when it is properly made. This was a cinnamon cookie night.
Recipes:
Chicken paprikash
5 chicken thighs
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 teaspoons paprika (I use half hot, half sweet)
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
Pull the skin away from the thighs, but don't remove it. Rub some of the paprika/salt mixture on the flesh, then replace the skin. Dredge the chicken in about 2 tablespoons of flour, and brown on all sides in 2 tablepoons of oil. Remove the chicken and brown the onion and carrot, scraping up all the burnt bits. Add a quarter cup water. Place the chicken over top, put on a tight lid, and bake in a 325 degree oven for an hour.
Haluski
1 batch noodles, using the recipe in Joy of Cooking
1 cabbage, sliced very thin and steamed until crispy-soft
1 sliced onion
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon butter
In a very large skillet, cook the onion in the 4 tablespoons of oil & butter until soft but not colored. Add the cabbage and cook, stirring, for about 10 minutes until the cabbage has a few brown spots on it. Add the cooked noodles and the rest of the butter. If you are feeling profligate, add some more butter. Stir until the noodles are heated through.

What I learned today: A nice Welsh girl like me is not a natural noodle maker. I never like my noodles all that much. If I had it to do over, I would buy a bag of noodles for about a dollar and use the egg and 2/3 cup flour for something else.
Marilyn

Dinner was so good that it was just like a normal day at our house ... which is quite good. While I have read that some people can't get enough calories on the Food Stamp Challenge, calories don't seem to be a problem for us. We are simply used to eating a bit differently ... many more fresh vegetables for example. We seem to be counting on fats and carbs for most of our calories. I wonder how that would play out over a longer period.

I am working on our last loaf of bread after dinner tonight. I hope to get the starter working enough to mix the dough tonight and then shape it tomorrow morning. Marilyn can bake it off tomorrow. Looks like it will be a 1.5 lb loaf.

Marilyn and I were talking today about how much more efficient it would be if we were doing this for a month rather than a week. We paid more than we had to for some things because we bought smaller quantities than we could have and usually paid inflated prices for the smaller quantities. We noticed that for a wee bit more we could have doubled or tripled our quantities of beans and rice. As a baker ... I would buy a wholesale bag of flour ( 100 lb). Even protein would be cheaper in bulk.

I will probably wind up losing a small amount of weight this week ... mostly because of no whim snacks (even fruit), not over-eating, and very small desserts. On the other hand, we are into good weather and, since I ride my bike to and from work practically every day, I usually lose my winter weight this time of year. Hard to say which is the cause here.

One last point is that there are lots of people blogging about this right now ... most of whom are not really informed. For example, people talk about, "buying a bag of apples cheaper than buying junk food". That is what you learn when you really study consumer food issues ... junk food is really cheap and that is why we consume so much of it. And, fresh fruit (even gnarley apples) is expensive.

Paul

Fourth day

Over the hump day. Visions of Hershey bars and crispy salads. I harvested a great big basket of asparagus today, and put it straight in the fridge. Paul had a microwave cheese omelet and toast for breakfast at work; I had peanut butter and jelly toast. Paul had a very beany day, with leftover bean soup and bread for lunch. I heated up a portion of rice pilaf with extra cheese for lunch. For dinner we had the rest of the beans heated up with 1/4 of the red pepper and an onion in a tablespoon of oil with canned greens, well-drained, and smoked sausage (and lots of Tabasco), and cornbread. Tea and brown-edged wafers for dessert.
Easy recipe: Improved corn muffin mix
Put 2 Tablespoons of oil in a 10 inch cast iron skillet and place in a cold oven. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
If the recipe calls for 1/2 cup milk, use 1 egg and enough water to make 1/2 cup instead.
When the oven is preheated, pour the batter into the pan and bake as directed. Nice & crispy

What I learned today: This is the easiest cooking I have ever done. I usually spend an hour in food prep; opening cans is speedier, but less satisfying. If I use my little Brown Betty, I can make 1 teabag into 2 cups of tea.
Marilyn

Lunch today was really weak ... leftover bean soup that was all broth. It makes for a very business-like lunch ... heat it up, slurp it down. But, it means that you are just pushing calories and not thinking about food as gratification or any of the other emotions that cause us all to eat more than we need. Dinner tonight reminded me of something that I have known for a long time ... heavy on flavor covers for light on substance. Said another way, almost anything is greatly improved with hot sauce.

Our son the baker said that he would have gone at this diet in a much more straight-forward manner ... beans and rice. He must not have inherited my prediliction to flatulance. I love beans but they make me unpleasant company.

Paul

Third day

Paul rode his bike to work, 8 miles each way, and so he needed more calories than I did. I walk a couple of miles a day, but not in a head up, shoulders back churning along sort of way. More of an amble, so I can look at flowers. Paul had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. He took enough ground coffee to make his own pot at work. I had buttered toast and tea. For lunch Paul had our first day dinner leftovers: chicken and rice with a bit of carrot and onion. I had a grilled cheese and onion sandwich and a used teabag. Dinner was rice pilaf and frozen fish sticks (pollack) and peanut butter cookies.
Recipe: Rice pilaf
1 teaspoon oil
2 teaspoons butter
2 onions, chopped
1/4 red pepper, choppped
1 can stewed tomatoes + enough water to make 2 cups
1 cup dry rice
1 teaspoon hot pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried basil
Salt and pepper to tast
Grated cheese
Heat the butter and oil in a lidded saucepan until foamy. Saute the peppers and onions until soft, add the pepper flakes and basil. Stir for a minute, then add the rice and stir until the grains are coated. Pour in the tomato mixture, and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and place in a 350 degree oven for half and hour. Serve with grated cheese at the table

What I learned today: Teabags are bad, cheap teabags are worse, and there is no using them twice. Since I am not drinking my usual quart of skim milk and my endless cuppas, I had to drink lots more water. Cheap fish fingers are mostly breading.
Marilyn

I didn't notice a lack of calories today at all. My breakfast of a P&J sandwich was typical and my lunch of previous dinner leftovers was typical (and really good ... even better reheated, as we like to say). My carafe of coffee was about 4 cups and pleanty to get me through the morning and lunch. Dinner tonight was sufficient enough that there is a future lunch for me left over. My biggest challenge today was that we threw a pizza party for our student employees (college) who are nearing the end of the term. There was enough pizza left over to feed the multitudes. Doing this diet quite vividly reminds me that we put too much food out and we have too much just sitting around ... but we all know that, right?

I baked some more bread this morning (retarded it in the fridge over night). I made 2 lb. of dough and I now think that we will run out of bread before the end of the week. We still have $1.40 to spend and if Marilyn doesn't need milk we can buy more flour. Saturday, the last day of our week, should be interesting.

My bread is simple, by the way. I have a starter so it is just 3 oz starter, 3 oz water, 3 oz flour ... mix and let work until doubled. Add this refreshed starter to 7 oz water and 16 oz flour and 2 tsp salt. Mix in bowl and then kneed for a few minutes until smooth. Let rise until doubled and then shape into a ball. Let rise in a collander lined with a floured towel until doubled (or let rise in the fridge overnight). Let come to room temp, turn out on to a baking sheet (or on to a stone in the oven if you have one) and then bake for 50 minutes in a preheated 375 oven. Put some ice cubes into the oven when the bread goes in for steam.

Paul